@Avaaz @Ed_Miliband @Number10gov #marr a fair political cap on donations

On the Marr show, Ed Miliband recommended that donations to political parties be limited to £5,000 p.a.

This is close enough to the State Pension to warrant the two being equated.

Tying the two together would ensure that the cap and the State Pension would be adjusted annually in a fair manner, commensurate with the wealth of the Nation.

Conservatives are critical of Labour being in the thrall of the Unions, by virtue of the political levy, whilst Labour will claim that this is the most cost-effective means of collecting the much smaller sums that their supporters can afford.

The solution could be to have a political levy attached to the annual paye form. a sum, payable to the party of their choice, of upto 1/52 x the basic State pension could be opted into on the annual tax form.

This could even be tax exempt, meaning that the donor, if a tax-payer, was actually not losing out.

An interesting conundrum would be raised by allowing those receiving untaxed welfare benefits, to forego a voluntary political donation.

Instead of opinion polls being used to assess the popularity of a political party, one would need only to look at a breakdown of the changes being made on political donations, which being made in April, would be a good indicator of the May Council elections.

I would also hope that such a system would incentivise politicians to pay more attention to employment levels and the growth of the National Wealth.

Political parties and pressure groups could still raise contributions (no tax relief) from their members but these would have to be notified to the Tax office to ensure conformity with the Cap and provide transparency.

This would apply to Director’s of companies, trying to use Company funds to augment their personal preferences.